Vegetarian Vegetable
by Scarpaw
Summary: Vegetable soup was the last thing Piper thought she would make friends with a stranger over, but it happened.


Hey! If you've read _Dragon Pox_ or _Eyes Like A Cat_, this story here is part of that same universe! These are all parts of _Demons and Demigods_ series in which I am slowly melding Heroes of Olympus and The Mortal Instruments together, by having characters from each side meet. _Dragon Pox_ and _Eyes Like A Cat_ do not need to be read in order to understand this part however! They all work perfectly well as stand-alone works. _Vegetarian Vegetable_ takes place after the end of both series, and so will most of the other stories too.

This takes place towards the end of December/beginning of January, so the events of Heroes of Olympus have been over for approximately 5 months, and the events of City of Heavenly Fire have been over for maybe 2 weeks, not including the Epilogue.

Please enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Heroes of Olympus or The Mortal Instruments**

_**Vegetarian Vegetable**_

_Vegetable soup was the last thing Piper thought she would make friends with a stranger over, but it happened. _

It was like the punchline of a bad joke, if Piper was able to make a joke. In all honesty, it was very surreal.

How it started was with a fight, which, in all honesty, was not all that new when it came to the topic of Leo. Jason and Piper had got into a fight over his death (yet again) and it resulted in Piper storming off, and out of the camp's boundaries. She had wanted some time alone to calm down, and if she had stayed Piper had known someone would have tried talking to her about it, and that was not what she wanted at the moment.

Leo had been… _gone_ for almost six months now. Jason had told her that Nico said there was no doubt that he was dead, both Underworld kids reported the same thing, but Piper didn't want to believe it. She _couldn't_ believe it. He had had the physician's cure; there _must_ have been _some_ way that he had been able to be given the cure– some way that he was still alive.

Piper hadn't realized she had started crying, or was blocking the sidewalk, until a passerby commented on it.

"Hey, is everything okay?" They gently pulled Piper out of the way, until she was standing next to one of the buildings. "I mean, sorry, that was a stupid question, everything's not okay if you're crying obviously."

She couldn't say anything through her tears, Piper just kept bawling, but she did try her best to nod that she was fine, that she didn't need any help. Though, that probably wasn't the message she sent across to the stranger, because it wasn't too long after that the stranger was leading her off the streets. Piper wasn't too worried, because she could handle herself if she had to; she had katoptrips in her belt, and Piper could always charmspeak the person to let her go if she had to.

The sound of a bell jingled overhead, and as Piper blinked through her tears, snuffing snot back loudly, she could see that she had been led into what appeared to be either a small café or diner. At least that ruled out a possible monster having taken her. A monster would have led her down an alley, or even killed her on the spot. That meant she was either being helped by a genuinely good Samaritan, or a God or Goddess was helping her.

Piper sincerely hoped it was just a good Samaritan.

"Here, sit down," Piper heard the sound of a chair scraping against the floor, and she gratefully sat down in it, trying to control her tears.

As she worked on trying to calm the flood of tears, she vaguely heard the person who helped her say something to a server as they came by the table. Piper focused on calming her breathing, and by the time the server came back, she felt significantly calmer. She scrubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and used the napkin to blow her nose.

The server gave Piper a smile as she put a bowl of soup down on either side of the table. Piper tried to manage a smile back, but it was forced. She blinked and felt tears starting to form again and looked away, down at the soup. Idly, she wondered what type of soup it was. It didn't look to have any meat in it, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. It was nice of the person to order for her, but they didn't know she was a vegetarian…

"It's Vegetarian Vegetable soup," The person on the other side of the table spoke, as if reading Piper's mind. She wondered how obvious her unsaid question was, staring at her bowl. Piper looked up and saw that the person who had escorted her was male, around her age. He had brown eyes and hair, and black glasses that reminded her of Jason's.

Thinking of Jason made Piper think of their argument, and her throat tightened. Piper stopped thinking of Jason.

"I'm a vegetarian," He elaborated. "Sorry that I just ordered for you– if you want something else, I can get the waitress–"

"This is fine," Piper cut in quickly, picking up her spoon. She stirred her soup, taking stock of the soups contents. Onion, celery, corn… what was probably lentil, all in all it didn't look too bad.

"Are you sure?" He said, looking worried.

"Don't worry," Piper got a spoonful, and looked at the onion hanging limply from either side of the spoon. "I'm a vegetarian too, so I don't mind." She popped the spoonful in her mouth.

It didn't taste too bad; a bit too much pepper in her opinion, but that was only her.

"Oh, wow, small world huh?" He stirred his soup. "I haven't really met anyone else who was a vegetarian before."

"Some of the kids at camp are," Piper shared automatically, and then wanted to kick herself. Technically, she wasn't supposed to share the existence of camp– _either_ of the camps –with mortals. She could handle this though.

"Camp?" He asked. "Like, a summer camp?"

"Yeah!" Piper jumped onto his supposition quickly. Technically speaking, Camp Half-Blood _was_ a summer camp; just not an ordinary one like typical mortal kids went to. "At my summer camp. Some of us are vegetarians." Clovis, in the Hypnos Cabin, was vegetarian if you could ever get him awake to eat, and then most of the kids in the Demeter Cabin (and a lot of Ceres' kids, according to Jason) preferred to eat the stuff they grew, and were vegetarians as a result.

"That's cool," The boy said around a mouthful of soup. "I went to an archery summer camp for six years. What type of summer camp do you go to?" As if he suddenly realized something, he added quickly, "Oh, um, I'm Simon, by the way. Simon Lewis. Sorry, I should have said that earlier."

"It's okay," Piper reached across the table and took the offered hand. "Piper McLean. I go to a," She thought quickly for a good cover for Camp Half-Blood, "special summer camp for kids with ADHD and dyslexia." That was partially the truth, and the best lies were always the ones with part of the truth.

"That sounds rough," Simon said. "You have ADHD _and_ dyslexia?"

"It's not that bad," Piper shrugged. "My ADHD at least isn't as bad as some of the other kids at camp. My friend Leo, he ha–" Piper's voice caught in her throat, and her eyes burned profusely. "Sorry," she croaked out.

"No, no, it's fine," Simon hurriedly assured her. "I'm sorry that I brought it up."

"Sorry," Piper repeated herself, wiping at her eyes. "It's been six months, and I'm still…" Piper shook her head. "Sorry." She swallowed, and dropped her spoon into her almost-empty bowl.

"Don't apologize," Simon told Piper. "I didn't mean to upset you.

"You didn't," Piper assured Simon, because she upset herself, and it was stupid, because it'd been six months already and she still hadn't come to terms with Leo being gone.

"Right, well," Simon coughed awkwardly in his hand. "Anyway, my mom says that what's important when we lose someone is that we remember them. Like, even though they're gone, they're not really _gone_, you know? Not as long as we still remember them."

"It's pretty hard to forget Leo," Piper admitted, laughing, a few tears slipping down her cheeks.

"Ugh, sorry," Piper groaned, wiping away her tears and blowing her nose again. "I hardly know you and I just keep crying. This must be really awkward for you."

"Just a little," Simon conceded. "But don't worry about it, really. You two must have been close."

"Yeah," Piper nodded, staring down at her bowl. "He and Jason were my only friends there for a while." Then, to clarify, Piper added on, "Jason's my boyfriend. We had a fight about Leo, and I just… stormed out on him."

"Is that why you were just standing out there alone?" Simon asked, before wincing. "Sorry, that was tactless of me. Just forget I said anything."

"It was," Piper answered him anyway. "We started arguing, and it turned into an all-out screaming match between us in front of our friends. I stormed off away from everyone because I needed some time alone." Then the realization hit her. "Oh _Gods,_ I stormed off. No one knows where I am– everyone is probably so worried right now." Not that Piper wasn't able to handle things just fine on her own, but she did run off in quite the huff.

"You can borrow my cellphone," Simon offered, pulling the device out of his pocket. "You can call your boyfriend and let him know where you are, and that you're okay."

"Thanks, but I can't," Piper declined.

"Are you sure?" Simon pressed politely. "I mean, if you're worried about using my minutes, don't worry; I have an unlimited plan."

"No, it's not that," Piper shook her head. "My boyfriend doesn't have a cellphone– none of us do, actually."

"Pretty low-tech of you all," Simon observed. "Any particular reason?"

Aside from the attracting monsters reason? Piper couldn't think of a valid reason she could give Simon aside from the whole demigod problem, which she obviously couldn't give, so she said,

"Not really." She shrugged. But then Piper remembered; even though demigods had problems with technology, their human parents didn't. Calling her own dad was out of the question seeing he wasn't anywhere near New York filming, but Percy's mom lived in the area. Mrs. Blofis had given them all her number when they had met her, and told them that if they needed anything they didn't have to hesitate to call or Iris Message her. (Honestly, Piper was a bit envious of how Percy's mom took the whole being a demigod thing, but there wasn't much she could do about her dad either.)

"Actually," Piper said. "Could I call someone? My friend's mom lives in the area, and she has a way of getting ahold of everyone to let them know where I am."

"Sure, I don't mind," Simon handed the phone over, and Piper dialed the Blofis' landline.

"Hello?" Mrs. Blofis' voice rang out over the connection, and Piper resolved to make the call quick. Anything longer than five minutes would make her location light up like a hotspot, and put all the mortals, including Simon, in danger when whatever monsters in the area locked onto Piper's scent.

"Hi Mrs. Blofis," Piper spoke quickly. Simon was picking at his soup, acting like Piper's conversation was uninteresting. "This is Piper, one of Percy's friends from Camp."

"Piper!" Mrs. Blofis had a smile in her voice, and what seemed like relief as well. "Percy just Iris Messaged me, wondering if I heard from you. He said Jason was pretty worried about you, and whatever he'd done to upset you– is everything all right?"

"Everything is just fine, Mrs. Blofis," Piper answered, and before she could say anything else, Mrs. Blofis told her,

"Piper, I told you, you can just call me Sally."

"Everything's fine, Sally," Piper repeated herself. "I was calling so you could let someone know where I am."

"I can do that," Sally told Piper. "Where are you?"

"I'm at," Piper started to say before she realized that she didn't know where she was at. She looked to Simon. "Um, where exactly are we Simon?"

Simon looked up a bit surprised, before rattling off the address and name of the place they were at. "It's also close to Central Park– down the block and across the street."

Piper relayed the information to Sally.

"I will let Jason know where you're at Piper," Sally told her.

"Wait!" Piper interrupted her quickly. "If it's not too much of a problem Sally, could you tell Annabeth to meet me at Central Park? Please?"

"It's not a problem at all," Something clinked on the other side of the line, and Piper figured it was Sally getting ready to Iris Message Annabeth. "Is there anything else you need dear?"

"No Sally," Piper said. "Thank you for doing this for me."

"Not a problem," Sally waved her thanks off. "And if you ever need anything, or need to talk to someone, I'm always willing to listen."

"All right. Thanks again," Piper thanked Sally once more. "Bye."

"Goodbye Piper," Sally said before Piper disconnected the call. The timer read four minutes and thirty-seven seconds. Not quite five minutes, but Piper wasn't sure if any monsters hadn't caught onto her presence during the time she was with Simon.

"Thanks for letting me borrow your phone," Piper handed the phone back to Simon.

"It was nothing," Simon pocketed his phone, and pulled out his wallet.

"Oh, I can pay for myself," Piper told him, but Simon waved his hand.

"Don't worry about it," Simon insisted. "I ordered for you, I should pay for you– it's only polite. Besides, you gotta meet your friend– Annabeth? –at the park anyway. I can handle paying for two bowls of soup."

That, and Piper had to book so she wouldn't lead any monsters here. But Simon didn't know that.

"If you say so…" Piper stood up. "It was nice meeting you Simon."

"It was nice meeting you too Piper," Simon said, before pulling something out of his pocket and handing it to Piper. "If you ever want to get together and hang out– with your friends or anything, well, our band isn't the greatest–"

Piper unfolded the paper; it was a flyer promoting a performance at a coffee shop that Piper hadn't heard of.

"Thanks," Piper interrupted Simon. "I'll see you around then?"

"Yeah." Simon nodded, before actually processing what Piper said, then said quicker, "Yeah, definitely!"

"All right. I gotta go. Again, it was really nice meeting you Simon," Piper waved as she exited the diner, and shouted, "Bye!"

Faintly as she left, Piper heard Simon yell, "Bye!" to her.

Once outside, Piper walked down the street until the diner was out of sight.

And then she started to sprint.


End file.
